I threatened King Arthur
by FadingArrows
Summary: Aspen gets sent back in time to Camelot, where she accidentally knocks a knight unconscious. She must convince King Arthur that she isn't a witch and that she didn't mean to hurt a knight in order to escape execution. Rated T for mild language and violence.
1. Chapter 1

Aspen scaled the large oak tree, expertly climbing with one hand while the other held a small paintball gun. Once she decided that she was high enough, she positioned herself so she could see the forest floor, wrapping her long legs around the branch to keep herself upright. She leaned back against the trunk and waited.

Aspen was in the forest behind her house with her three brothers. Having brothers had left her forced to participate in various activities that they wanted to or risk being left at home with nothing to do. Aspen ended up learning an array of different skills.

The siblings were hunting each other, but wore no protective gear to shield them from the paintballs. Aspen was wearing a purple t-shirt, jeans, and combat boots.

Aspen spied down on her younger brother, Jacob, who was creeping across the forest floor. She waited until he was right under the branch she sat on, and she shot a paintball at the ground to the right of his foot. He jumped, startled by the sound, and looked up at his sister.

"Hey!" He yelled.

Aspen responded, "You always forget to look up Jacob. That is why I will forever beat you." She grinned and Jacob frowned. His frown morphed into a wicked smile as he remembered that by the rules of their game, Aspen had captured him and was now on her team.

"Let's find Xavier." He suggested.

Aspen laughed lightly, "I'll meet you there."

Jacob ran off to find their brother as Aspen swung her right leg over the tree branch, preparing to jump down. She leaned forward and hopped out of the tree, bending her knees for the landing. In the half second that she was in the air, the ground disappeared into a swirling black mass.

The ground started to cave in right below her, the dirt falling away like she was diving into a sinkhole. Aspen tumbled into the black void. Her voice seemed to leave her, she couldn't yell for help or even scream in terror.

Everything around her turned black and she fell at an angle, as if she were on a slide. She knew that she was moving fast, air rushed by and her blonde ponytail whipped from side to side as she twisted in the open space.

Then the forest reappeared suddenly and she slammed into something. The impact knocked her sideways and she hit the ground with her left shoulder. Years of martial arts classes had trained her to tuck in her head and roll; she used those instincts now to gain momentum and roll herself into a crouching position. The something she had hit landed with a thud beside her. No, she thought, someone. They were groaning. Aspen hoped she hadn't hurt the person, but she was too dazed to check.

Aspen lifted her paintball gun, which she had clutched to her stomach. In her peripheral vision above her glasses, which rested, miraculously, at the end of her nose, she saw someone on a horse. With her paintball gun raised as her only form of protection, she used her left hand to readjust her glasses and wipe the dirt from the front of the lenses. Now that she could see semi-clearly, her eyes widened in shock at the person on the horse. Or the six people on horses, all of whom wore chainmail, capes, and held swords pointed at her.

The man directly in front of her dismounted his horse, rather gracefully, while keeping his sword raised. He commanded her to surrender.

"You are under arrest, by the knights of Camelot. Remove your mask and drop what you're holding. I suggest you surrender now and we may have mercy on you."

The man was handsome and had long, almost shaggy blonde hair. He was obviously muscular, apparent even under the chainmail and he was quite tall.

Aspen shook her head. She realized that he thought her glasses were a mask. It faintly registered with her that she might have traveled back in time.

"First, it's not a mask; second, who are you?" she asked, still confused; she felt as if she recognized the man, but couldn't place a name to his face.

The blonde man stared at her for a moment, forgetting about her glasses. "I am the king! King Arthur of Camelot." He stated this fact as if Aspen should automatically know it.

It dawned on her where and when she was. "Oh!" Arthur smirked at her realization. Aspen smiled and then grinned. "Where's Merlin?"

Arthur's smirk faded. "You don't know who I am, but you know Merlin?" He seemed genuinely puzzled and Aspen felt pride that she had confused him. He shook his head. "Never mind, surrender now, you are outnumbered, weaponless, and surrounded." The king ordered once again.

Aspen was still crouched on the ground; her knees were starting to hurt and she had to place her left hand out in front of her to keep herself balanced. She glanced up, eyes flicking back and forth for a moment. She hoped what she was about to do would look cool and not end with her getting killed.

In one fluid motion, Aspen stood up and spun around, shooting three separate trees with her paintball gun, leaving neon green blobs dripping from the bark, before finishing the turn and facing Arthur, holding the gun steady with both hands.

"I suggest you surrender or I will use this weapon to kill you all." She hoped they wouldn't call her bluff and realize that it was mostly harmless.

All the knights' eyes went wide. Arthur glared daggers at Aspen. He hesitated before slowly lowering his sword. The other knight followed his lead and lowered their swords as well. Aspen slowly circled the group, herding them together. "Stand by the unconscious one." She ordered while flicking the end of the gun as a gesture, like they did in movies.

"You won't get away with this." Gwaine said, his voice flat.


	2. Chapter 2

"You won't get away with this." Gwaine said, his voice flat.

"You threatened me remember? Believe it or not, I didn't mean to knock him out." She lowered the gun slightly to point at the unconscious knight. Aspen continued to explain, somewhat telling the truth, somewhat lying through her teeth. "I was jumping out of a tree, in a forest very far from here, when I fell into a hole that appeared as if by magic - let me clarify, I did not use the magic, someone else did - and then I ended up here."

"Whether or not you are telling the truth, you are still threatening the king and are practically admitting to using magic. I could execute you for either of those things." Arthur said viciously, risking Aspen's temper.

"Ha! You wouldn't dare execute royalty!" She didn't know where the idea came from, but Aspen was now impersonating royalty; she didn't have time to decide if she was a queen, a princess, or something else, but she assumed that she would have expand her lie soon.

"Ha!" Gwaine mocked Aspen's bark like laugh. There's no way you're royalty. You have no manners at all. And you're wearing… I don't even know what, but it's not a dress, and it's immoral." Gwaine snapped at Aspen. Arthur silenced him with a sharp look before he could go on.

Aspen glared at Gwaine with fire in her eyes, she was getting frustrated at the knights for their ignorance. "I am from a land far away from here, where the way I am dressed now is modest! You are... are primitive, with awful standards for women and men. In my land, I am the Queen! I am the ruler of the land, without a king. And you know what, the people love me because they elected me. I didn't get my power from my family, I got my power because I deserved it and I love my people and serve them well." She didn't know where all the lies were coming from, but Aspen just kept lying her way through the confrontation. She wasn't physically yelling, but her voice had raised as she continued. She didn't know if they would believe that she was a queen; she was after all only seventeen, but the knights were shocked speechless by her rant.

Arthur was the first to speak. "Are you implying that I don't care about my people; that I am a bad king?" His voice quiet, but filled with rage, not caring that Aspen had the paintball gun pointed at him.

"When did I say you are a bad king?" Aspen asked and answered her own question, "I didn't say it. Not every king who gets his power through his parents is bad, but not everyone who is born to become king is fit for the role." Aspen cut off Arthur as he started to reply. "Never mind that." She lowered her voice and continued, "If you would kindly let me, I'd like to help the unconscious man at your feet."

She somewhat trusted the knights not to arrest or attack her so she lowered the paintball gun. She had determined that she knocked out Percival; he was bleeding somewhat heavily from a cut on his forehead, but as he was facedown, it wasn't visible to the knights, and they hadn't noticed.

"Merlin," Aspen ordered, "help me with this." The raven-haired boy appeared from behind the knights, having been herded into the center of the group involuntarily as the knights made sure to protect him. He wordlessly handed her a small pack with medicinal supplies and rolled Percival over gently and started to clean out his wound with water from his flask. Aspen could see that Merlin had a silent conversation with Arthur convincing him that she wouldn't hurt Percival more. She borrowed the medicine pack Merlin had and started to stich up the wound; although it was probably less severe than it looked, Aspen didn't want to take any chances that it reopened. Arthur moved to stop her as she started to close the laceration with thread, but Merlin motioned for him not to. The servant watched intently as Aspen dressed the wound with Antiseptic she had pulled from her pocket. It was in a tiny spray bottle on her key ring. Then she neatly covered the cut with bandages.

"He should wake up within a few minutes and he should be fine, but don't let him to anything physically straining until the wound is completely healed. The Antiseptic I put on it will keep him from getting infected, but it should be cleaned when he changes the bandage. I don't think he has a concussion…" Aspen trailed off, realizing that everyone, even Merlin, was staring at her, uncomprehending. She forgot that they had little knowledge of illness that wasn't apparent. "Um, he hasn't seriously hurt his head." She said, suddenly feeling extremely self-conscious.

"Where did you learn how to do that?" Merlin asked. Aspen didn't answer him because while she cared for Percival Arthur had picked up his sword and now pointed it at her throat. Her paintball gun was just out of reach. Aspen frowned and practically snarled, "I just explained the misunderstanding and saved your friend and you still try to arrest me?"

"Just because you saved my knight does not change the fact that you threatened me and my men." Arthur said angrily.

So, he was still mad about that. Aspen thought. Does no one just let things go? She resisted the strong urge to roll her eyes at the king.


End file.
